No doctor wants to lose patients for any reason. You want your patients to come back to your practice when they need help again, not forget about you and end up in someone else’s office. Even if a patient returns just once and refers only one other person to you, they have a high value to your practice. Building relationships with your patients by effectively marketing to your list is the best way to bring patients back to your office in the future, because you remain in communication with them over time. The key is, of course, using your list effectively.

This means reaching out to people regularly through multiple communication avenues. Newsletters are your best friend here—they are an incredibly effective tool. They can and should be sent both electronically and through traditional mail. E-mail marketing is another valuable tool for communicating to your list. It allows you to reach out to people on a regular basis and provide helpful information. If you have a fully automated database for your list, you can run campaigns, too, like yearly appointment reminders and birthday notices. All of these simple marketing touches keep you in the minds of people who already know, like, and trust you.